I've been getting the impression from developers, and the general gaming community, that all this next-generation hooplah is not really about making better games, just better looking ones. No one really cares if Resident Evil 20 or Tekken 9 innovates in the gameplay or story department, so long as there are reflective bump-mapped textures and it roars at sixty frames per second.

When I first heard about Super Monkey Ball, I was looking forward to a couple of other high-profile GameCube titles, like Star Wars: Rogue Leader and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Super Monkey Ball had nearly slipped under my radar screen since the arcade game from which this game is ported never saw the light of day outside of Japan, and I knew very little about it.

The release of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the PlayStation 2—a high-profile PC franchise appearing on a console—is something unusual. This is not entirely new, as the Ultima series made appearances on consoles in addition to its original PC releases. But Dark Alliance differs from the console versions of Ultima in that its gameplay deviates heavily from its franchise-mates on the PC. The other Baldur's Gate games were an excellent example of the PC style of role-playing games—open-ended strategic games based heavily on rules from pencil-and-paper RPGs. Instead, Dark Alliance is a fast-paced, real-time action game where one player controls one character; any attached rules are mainly flavoring for the main course of arcade-style action. Given the incredible difference in gameplay, it's no surprise that rather than attempt to build Dark Alliance itself, franchise studio Black Isle contracted Snowblind Studios to develop it.

A great game is like a Tootsie Pop: you slowly penetrate through the tasty outisde layers, which then melt away into an even more satisfying and chewy middle. Azurik: Rise Of Perathia has more in common with the strange rice cakes I bought a while back. At first taste, I wondered what all the fuss was about, but after two or three of 'em a nice buzz began to develop on my tongue, and soon enough the whole bag disappeared. The challenge, then, is to get the gamer to take that many bites, particularly when the two or three you need to start liking the rice cakes translates to two or three hours for Azurik.

I don't know why developers are so averted to bringing computer-style role-playing games (RPG) to home videogame consoles. The Baldur's Gate series is a critically acclaimed, popular title in the PC gaming world. While Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the PlayStation 2 brings gamers closer to the Dungeons And Dragons RPG setting, the title proves that sometimes the apple falls a bit too far from the tree. In short, Dark Alliance doesn't represent the same caliber game to which PC gamers are treated.

Just as Devil May Cry and Halo re-wrote the rules of their genres, Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding eschews many of the conventions of snowboarding games and presents a refreshing spin on its weathered concept.

NHL 2002 ultimately succeeds at bringing NHL-styled hockey to the XBox. While it isnt a perfect recreation of the worlds "coolest sport," it does a nice job of capturing the major nuances of the game and recreating them in videogame format.

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